I'm indebted to Pastor Vance Fossum for focusing on "the life" of the Jesus follower in his 27 May 2001 sermon...precipitating these notes:
| All humans are created for God's good pleasure...to glorify God...having been created with a potential "life" and with God-given talents.
| All persons are God-desired to be Jesus believers, saved for an eternity with God, the only
guaranteed (Acts 4:12) way to
eternal salvation...confessing your agreement that Jesus died to save mankind from the sin penalty of death for failure to lead lives of perfect obedience to God.
Some will "believe; some won't!
| As a believer & follower, you already have an empowered life in progress (in
process, never finished on Earth)...no longer a potential life. The
Gospel...good news [here].
| Your life plan was created for you by God, the Father, before the creation of the world (Jeremiah 29:11; Ephesians 2:10).
See and appreciate how men & women & all of us are different [here].
| You really "get it" upon accepting your salvation, already paid for by Jesus...by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8).
[see how here]
| This makes you a child of God and a joint heir with Jesus of all the inheritance from God, under the authority (Matthew 28:18) of Jesus
[God's authority system], having the powers of the
triune God on your side!
| Jesus accepts you then and there, just as you are...no matter what & no matter the
"baggage", no matter how dirty/sinful!
| Upon truly believing in Jesus, you become
born again (John 3:1-21) by the sudden internal indwelling of the Holy
Spirit; and that state of being saved is absolutely
secure,
no matter what happens thereafter!
| You are no longer under the dominion of Satan...satanic forces no longer have primary power of input over you in the spiritual battles whose skirmish results define our days.
| You become endowed with one or more of the "spiritual gifts" (I
Corinthians 12).
| Thereafter, you are indwelt with the power to change and to flow out "fruits of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22-23).
| It is an "other-centered" life, not a self-centered life.
| It is a life of service to others, not a life of non-sharing accumulation for self and self interest.
| It is a life of giving away, not gathering in.
| And, as in the prayer of Jabez (I Chronicles 4:9-10), it is one desirous of huge blessings and enlargement of [spiritual...used-of-Jesus] territory, while at the same time requesting the mighty hand of God in our behalf that we might be kept from evil in order that we not cause pain in this world.
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We Jesus followers need to be focused on the life in/with Jesus "up there" but continually living as witnesses for Him on mission "down here"...involved in The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)!